Icarus Community Report

 

A message from the 5/6 Icarus teachers 

It has been a busy time in the 5/6 Icarus community!

We would like to thank the parents and guardians who attended our Parent Information session on the 4th May. It was great to meet parents and share the learning expectations in our community.

Our grade 5s completed their NAPLAN tests recently. In class, we discussed strategies that would assist them, such as skimming and scanning information and reading the questions carefully. Well done to all grade 5s who completed NAPLAN! 

We have started our buddies program with the grade 1/2 students. Every fortnight Grade 5/6 students spend their eating time sitting and chatting with 1/2  students. This is a great chance for us to practice our conversation skills and also to be good role models to younger students! 

Grade 6 students recently assisted with the Junior Athletics held on the school oval for younger students. They helped run various events for students such as sack races, hula hoop races, long jump and other mini races. All teachers were highly complimentary of the Grade 6 students as they demonstrated our School Values. 

We are delighted by the arrival of our Grade 6 jumpers for students to wear. They look very trendy and warm! 

Intraschool sport

As part of our intra-school sports program, we select four sports each term. This term our sports are Bat Tennis, Netball, Soccer and Rounders. As always, our focus is on sportsmanship, resilience and developing our skills in our allocated sport.

Our Learning

Literacy

We have been building on our persuasive writing skills in our Writing lessons. 

Below are a few examples of student work:

Hey, you! Yeah, you! Do you like computers a bit too much? What if I told you, computers are worse than books? Computers cause headaches and they cost more than books. Lastly, lots of scams are all over the internet. Isn’t that shocking? - Jasroop (a persuasive introduction).

How can anyone believe it is true that swimming is too expensive? Actually it's really cheap. You can swim almost anywhere because earth is 75% water. You can even swim for free! - Sabrah (snippet of a persuasive argument).

I firmly believe that swimming is a fantastic skill to have. Have you ever helped someone in need, in the water? If you know how to swim you could rescue someone caught in a riptide! - Lacie (snippet of a persuasive argument).

An example of some of our Spelling work that focused on words that used the oi, oy, ee and ea spellings.

Maths

Our Maths focus has been on Number and Algebra. We looked at factors which are whole numbers that are multiplied together to produce another number. We made Factor Rainbows to understand what factors make up certain numbers.

We also made arrays which is a way to represent multiplication and division in rows and columns visually. 

Our next Maths focus is looking at measurement including perimeter, area, volume and converting metric units.

SEL 

In SEL we have been looking at ways we can care for the environment and our learning spaces. We created posters to display around the school to encourage all students to do the right thing and ensure their rubbish goes in the bin. As leaders of the school, we know that younger students look to us to make the right choices and follow our examples.

Inquiry

Our inquiry focus this term is energy sources and looking at ways we can live more sustainably. We decided to tackle a real-life problem: rubbish in the school yard! As a cohort, we were allocated an area of the yard and collected rubbish. We then checked the mass of  the rubbish. In Maths, we created a series of different graphs to represent the volume and mass of rubbish found. 

We then decided to present our findings at assembly for the entire school to see the problem and take action. We also created persuasive posters to display around the school encouraging people to put their rubbish in the bin.

Home Learning

Students are given a diary and home reader to take home (in a plastic pocket to protect the book). They change their home reader daily. We ask that they read out loud for 15 - 20 minutes every night as part of their home learning.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your child’s Mentor Teacher via the Compass app or call or email the school office to make a time to meet with teachers.

Students have been each allocated a school diary to take home. We encourage parents and guardians to regularly check this.

Kind regards, 

5/6 Icarus teachers, 

Lisa, Paul, Amber and Ainsley